


Words to Live By

by bigCheese



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 14:25:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9445337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigCheese/pseuds/bigCheese
Summary: Keith remembers bits of his past.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a teeny little smth I wrote bc I wanted to write some sheith...getting myself back in the groove after months of inactivity is hard.

Keith remembered his past through feelings rather than events. Blurred, happy days when his father was around, with just a hint of curiosity and loneliness over a mother he didn't know. Abandonment, shock, and an added heap of loneliness came when he was left at the orphanage, and anger when he tried to make sense of his father's decision only to come up empty. Anger and a thirst for purpose when he left the orphanage behind to join the Galaxy Garrison – with another layer of loneliness when his natural talent earned him the scorn of the other recruits.

 

There was another cadet at the time, in a higher class, that inspired all sorts of new things. A strapping young man with a record that spoke for itself, and the air of someone who knew what he was doing – where he was going. A prodigious pilot that Keith's peers all looked up to as their hero.

 

Keith hadn't the slightest desire to be a hero, but he did envy the clarity of purpose that seemed to overflow from First Cadet Shirogane. There was a little admiration for Shirogane's skills thrown in there, too.

 

One day, Shirogane spoke to him. Some of the older cadets happened upon the flight simulation exercises of the class below them; Shirogane saw a genius hitting himself against a wall, ensnaring his own feet, digging himself deeper and deeper as he tried to prove _something_ to _someone._ When the cadet walked out of the simulator in a huff – his teammates long forgotten – and stomped off where the instructor's two cents couldn't reach him, Shirogane approached him.

 

''Hey there,'' he called out.

 

Keith looked up at him with eyes the colour of space – infinite, and lonely. The voice that answered him, however, was uninterested and rough: ''Are you talking to me?''

 

There was no one else around, but Shirogane skirted over that fact. He tried to remember what he'd come here to say and, when he did, he said it with a kind smile: ''You did good in there.''

 

''What?'' Keith did not like the feeling of being patronized. ''Didn't you see me tank?''

 

''I saw how hard you were trying,'' Shiro answered. He didn't know where he was speaking from, which place, or part of his past, the words were coming from. He wasn't a teacher, nor a leader. All he knew was that he wanted to help this pilot with amazing potential. So, the words came. ''But if you try too hard, you're more likely to drive yourself into a wall. Remember: patience yields focus.''

 

If Keith remembered his past through feelings then, since that day, he remembered those words as well. They made so little sense to him but, somehow, they got him through trial after trial. Always close to his heart, always encouraging – given to him by a really tall, smiling guy who Keith had momentarily _not_ recognized as the genius pilot Shirogane at the time.

 

That was why Keith felt oddly modest and thrilled when Shirogane checked on his progress a few weeks later. Part of him hoped for another little bit of wisdom that would make his Garrison days more tolerable.

 

Instead, Shirogane simply told him: ''You've really improved. Great work!''

 

Now that, that just felt wonderful.

 


End file.
